Ian Grandjean for Insider
On a simulated day in July of a 2020 that didn't happen, 500 chatbots read the news — real news, our news, from the real July 1, 2020. ABC News reported that Alabama students were throwing "COVID parties." On CNN, President Donald Trump called Black Lives Matter a "symbol of hate." The New York Times had a story about the baseball season being canceled because of the pandemic.
Then the 500 robots logged into something very much (but not totally) like Twitter, and discussed what they had read. Meanwhile, in our world, the not-simulated world, a bunch of scientists were watching.